Foreign Languages, and the learning thereof

[Winston Smith]

I'm in my fourth year of high school russian, and it's paying off. I can have whole phone calls. My teacher just called me and ya ponil shto ohn skazal ochen horosho.

What languages have you guys studied?

And also I can't seem to have more than one language in my head at once... I tried learning hebrew, but that squeezed out spanish, and now russian squeezed out hebrew!

[jefnvk]

I had three years of German in High School.  Would have kept it up, but they transfered to some distant learning thing to save money (how?  You are paying the teacher to be at school anyways, and the equipment cost an extra few hundred thousand dollars???).

Really liked learning the language, it was when they decided to start teaching German history and culture (I can kinda understand culture, as it has some affect on language), that I got real bored real quick in the class.

Deutsch sind eine gute Sprache, or something like that.  The last class was about 4 years ago.

Guten Nacht!

[cfabe]

I took 4 years of french in highschool, but never really tried very hard at learning it. My reading and listening comprehension was pretty good, but writing and speaking was not great. I've forgotten almost all of it now 5 years later.

[El Tejon]

Always keep learning, Winston.  Education is the one thing they can never take away.  Going to test out of a couple of years of Russian at university, right?

I speak Russian, try to speak Spanish, know a little Cantonese, and know a little French.  Have always wanted to study Mandarin formally.

[The Rabbi]

I have studied or have familiarity with:
Russian, German, French, Spanish, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Yiddish.

I find the better one knows the language the easier it is to keep them separate.  Sometimes it isnt.  German and Yiddish are close but not the same.  I find myself using mishpacha and loshon instead of familia and sprache sometimes.
The more languages one knows the easier it is to learn others because they have similarities in either vocabulary or structure or both.  So every language has to have names for things (nouns), names for actions (verbs) and some way to show the interaction between them.

[Jamisjockey]

Regretably, none.  I think that in this day and age, a child shouldn't be allowed to graduate without knowing Spanish.  Mine will be enrolled in several whether he likes it or not.
By circumstance, I know American Sign Language.

[Stickjockey]

Three years of German in High school, two in college. Forgotten most of it.

Always wanted to learn Scots Gaelic and Latin.

[grampster]

Non habilatay too much espanole' seenyer.  I tried learning Spanish using tapes on my 45 minute each way daily commute.  What I discovered, for me anyway, I started to get behind in the lessons because I was not immersed in the language on a daily basis.  I would have Spanish speaking folks come in my office, but it was not very often.  I started to forget what I learned a few days ago, when adding new lessons because I was not conversing daily.
The best I wound up with was being able to identify some words as folks conversed, which helped me get the jist of what they were saying.

[RGO]

I have studied French and Spanish in K-12, but recall very little due to lack of interest.  I studied Mandarin Chinese in college, getting a minor in it, and would say that I have intermediate proficiency in it.  I love the language; interest was key to me retaining anything.  Some background: my mother is a first-generation immigrant from Taiwan and is tri-lingual (English, Taiwanese, Mandarin Chinese).  I didn't learn the Asian languages from her as a child, but maybe my exposure to them made Chinese easier for me to learn as an adult.

[Azrael256]

My father told me, when I was very young, that "a man who speaks two languages is worth two men."  I'm hoping that effect is cumulative.

Spanish, Latin, Greek (biblical and classical), Hebrew (modern and ancient), Farsi, Arabic (Egyptian, for now), a smattering of Vietnamese, Cantonese, and Japanese, and I've almost got a Bulgarian girl to teach me her language

[The Rabbi]

reminds me of a joke:
What do you call someone who speaks 3 languages?
Answer: Trilingual.
What do you call someone who speaks 2 languages?
Answer: Bilingual.
What do you call someone who speaks one language?
Answer: An American.  (in the original Spanish version it was "gringo")

[Felonious Monk/Fignozzle]

FWIW
I speak English and Spanish, and can find a bathroom, restaurant and hotel in French, Italian, and Portuguese.

The last two jobs I've gotten in IT have had more to do with being bi-lingual and less to do with my IT skills.

Find (or make) a friend who speaks the language you're studying or interested in, offer to buy/make 'em lunch or dinner once a week, and during that time make a rule that your conversation will be as much in the 2nd language as possible.  When it gets frustrating, slow down and WRITE what you are trying to say, in English, then pull the best phrase you can in the new language and let your friend correct it.

You quickly begin to overcome the self-consciousness/frustration when you do this, and then real learning begins to come much more quickly.

...it doesn't hurt if your new friend happens to be a really pretty Latina, either.

[Winston Smith]

...it doesn't hurt if your new friend happens to be a really pretty Latina, either.

I learned russian because of a series of russian girlfriends.

[Azrael256]

What do you call someone who speaks one language?
Answer: An American.  (in the original Spanish version it was "gringo")

Whoever came up with that has clearly never met an American.

I can't think of fifty people I know who can speak English.

[Gewehr98]

As part of my training to be a Lutheran Pastor:

German (Also my second family language when I was growing up, Hochdeutsch und Plattdeutsch)
Latin (I still have the Latin version of Winnie the Pooh)
Greek
Hebrew

From my Air Force career, I can understand:

Japanese
Tagalog
Cockney - but it takes a lot of work

I need to learn:

Spanish
Chinese

So I can order food, listen to how the food is actually being prepared (No MSG!), and understand the loud conversations in my neighborhood.

(edited to remove Taco Bell reference, no ethnic slander intended)

[Gewehr98]

This makes me wonder:

I think that in this day and age, a child shouldn't be allowed to graduate without knowing Spanish

I think I already know your answer, but may I ask why? I did a stint as an assistant grade school teacher in Kalifornia, and they were debating forcing the teachers to learn and speak Spanish.  I bristled then, as now, when I heard their logic.  

[Bemidjiblade]

Gewehr is now my hero.

I speak English and French.

I'm working on Hebrew and and gaelic on my own time.
I have a smattering of Latin, Korean, and German
and I need to pick up Greek because I want to be a Lutheran Pastor some day.

[Bemidjiblade]

I think that before we start demanding American students learn Spanish,
we might want to consider forcing them to learn English.

[Jamisjockey]

This makes me wonder:

I think that in this day and age, a child shouldn't be allowed to graduate without knowing Spanish

I think I already know your answer, but may I ask why? I did a stint as an assistant grade school teacher in Kalifornia, and they were debating forcing the teachers to learn and speak Spanish.  I bristled then, as now, when I heard their logic.  

I also think French oughta be mandatory.  English, Spanish, and French are very widely used languages.
  Why not have a more learned workforce and society?

[lee n. field]

(I still have the Latin version of Winnie the Pooh)

Hey!  My Grandmother had a copy of that.  She taught Latin in a high school for a long time.  I wonder what became of her copy.

Spanish, 4 years.  German 1 year.  Both in high school.

3 semesters Koine Greek, in college.  I'm giving though to trying to revive my Greek skills via self-study (like I have time).

[The Rabbi]

What do you call someone who speaks one language?
Answer: An American.  (in the original Spanish version it was "gringo")

Whoever came up with that has clearly never met an American.

I can't think of fifty people I know who can speak English.

The punchline was, like, y'know, one language thingy.  Not effin English.  For real.  Dude.

[Azrael256]

Not effin English.  For real.  Dude.

That is, like, so true.  An American who, like, speaks English?  Like, as if!

*shudder*  I think I need a shower after that.

[El Tejon]

Fig, mmmm, hot Latina girlfriend!  I believe they are called "long-haired dictionaries."

[Dave Markowitz]

Excuse me officer, I speak Jive.



:-D

Seriously, I had four years of French in Jr. high and HS, plus four years of Hebrew.  I remember a little of French, next to nothing of Hebrew.

[Gewehr98]

Why not, indeed?

Why not have a more learned workforce and society?

Starting with society.  They want to immigrate, then have a working knowledge of the official language of the land.  Nothing unfair about that, it's actually part of the citizenship requirements.  Although, as I alluded to earlier, some jurisdictions in the PRK wanted to have Spanish included as an official language, particularly in the classroom.  Not on my watch.